Lux again, after considering everything, I think the failure of Marachal Niel' to thrive, might be the clone. Because in the same bed, and c. 7-8 feet on- center from M.N. is a 'Mrs. B.R. Cant' that was given to me as a house present in January 2013, it arrived in a gallon pot and was c. 8 inches tall by nearly as wide, now it has grown to be c. 3 feet tall by nearly as wide in less than 7 months. I had planned to keep it in that bed for a couple years until it grew to be about 3 feet tall until I had cleared a strip of lawn to move it to, but it's grown three times faster than I thought it would have done. I'm still moving Marachal Niel' to a rosebed that gets a couple hours of afternoon shade, because two canes are sunburnt at the top of the plant, The yellowing leaves may be due to using Epson salts,this year and last, a tip I read in an English rose book. I should have understood that a method and means used in England may not be a good thing to use in California, because our soil and climate is so different. Thanks again, Lux.

contact a local nursery supply company and ask about having them order some. since they're regularly getting shipments from various manufacturers, shipping isn't as likely to eat them up. in lieu of the pebbles, you can just use lava rock readily available at a hardware store or landscape store. The only thing with them is you may need to crush the chunks into more usable sizes. Net pots . . search around, try Ebay. I think you can get 2" pots for 0.20 - 0.25 per piece. just watch the shipping charges. If you happen upon a gold mine, post it here for others to take advantage of.

Whatever your "landscaper" used for "topsoil" was probably about 95 percent mineral (the sand, silt, clay part of soil) and 5 percent organic matter and what your soil really needed was organic matter. Whether cottonseed meal, or any other meal, would help would depend on the Soil Food Web and how active they were. Things like cottonseed meal need to be digested before the nutrients in them are available to plants and if the soil has little organic matter the SFW is not there to do that. First you need to look closely at that soil to determine what it needs and that requires a good reliable soil test for soil pH and major nutrient levels and balance. Then these simple soil tests may also be of some help. 1) Soil test for organic material. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24 hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight. For example, a good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top. 2) Drainage. Dig a hole 1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drains’ too quickly and needs more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up. 3) Tilth. Take a handful of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a finger that clump should fall apart. 4) Smell. What does your soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria will be and the nicer your soil will smell, to a point. Too much organic matter can be bad as well. 5) Life. How many earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that is not healthy. kimmq is kimmsr

Ultimately, adding anything organic to 'break up clay soil' is counter-productive in the long run. As in, years down the road in most climates - so this is where Embo's question about the type of plants comes into play. If you just have a vegetable garden, go ahead and work some pine bark fines or whatever in the soil. If you are growing permanent long-term landscape plants, likelihood is you are just going to turn the area into more of a quagmire eventually. The only true long term solution is either calcium sulfate or calcitic limestone, if the soil is the type to benefit from it, or the incorporation of agents that permanently change the soil structure. An example would be something like Permatil or Turface that is added to athletic fields. And mind you even this won't fix underlying drainage problems if they exist, although calcitic limestone, applied generously over several years, improved a part of my garden from being so gooey my subcompact tractor almost got stuck it in, to being merely prone to mushiness. Basically, in some clay soils, especially near coastal areas like where I live, magnesium and sodium ions long trapped in the clay are displayed by calcium, forming a clay that aggregates more readily giving water more space to move down into lower soil strata. After a heavy rain now, I can sometimes actually hear a sucking sound as this happens. I still need to fix the drainage in that area with new tile drains, but it's made it a bit less treacherous.